Rachel Marandett

Volume 27.1 (download PDF)

Abstract

Under a world order defined by nation-states, having one’s rights and dignity protected is inexorably tied to being a citizen of somewhere. Stateless people, who are citizens of nowhere, are thus left without the safeguards of a nation responsible for them. Today, there are over 200,000 stateless people living in the United States. Because the American immigration system is built upon the premise that everyone is a citizen of somewhere, stateless people are consistently trapped in a ceaseless legal limbo. In fact, the majority of stateless people in the United States have already gone through removal proceedings and have final orders of removal. These orders, however, cannot realistically be executed as most states will not accept stateless people. Thus, most stateless people are forced to live out their lives in the United States under Orders of Supervision. Trapped in this legal limbo, stateless peoples must perpetually endure limitations on their movement, persistent surveillance, no pathway to citizenship, and an ever-looming risk of prolonged detention or deportation to somewhere entirely unfamiliar. This ineffective system is as inhumane as it is unsustainable.

In response to the voices and needs of stateless people across the country forced to live under these conditions, this Article seeks to unpack the unique challenges stateless people face in the removal process and the untenable legal limbo they are trapped in thereafter. Thorough analysis of these issues illuminates the need for an entirely new statutory framework for stateless people immigrating to the United States that is attentive to their unique situation. While the recently proposed Stateless Protection Act of 2022, written by stateless people, provides such a framework, Congress is unlikely to pass it without judicial decisions holding the present system’s treatment of stateless people unconstitutional. Thus, this Article analyzes prior litigation efforts and proposes additional legal strategies to protect stateless people with final orders of removal. Lawyers and advocates must combine increased litigation efforts that utilize new and creative approaches with the important education and advocacy work stateless people in the United States are already doing in order to build a system that doesn’t leave stateless people stranded on the road to nowhere.